Public Option: It's Back (ABC News: Dem sources say Reid will put in bill)

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:

The public option. The idea was believed to be dead. Liberals wanted it, but Senate vote counters insisted it simply could not pass the Senate. The dynamic, however, has changed. The public option may be back from dead.

I am told that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leaning toward including the creation of a new government-run insurance program – the so-called public option – in the health care reform bill he will bring to the full Senate in the coming weeks.

Democratic sources tell me that Reid – after a series of meetings with Democratic moderates – has concluded he can pass a bill with a public option.

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/10/public-option-its-back.html

[Barack_America]

1. Boo!

I'm just trying to get a head start on tomorrow's story that Reid has caved and the public option is out again.

ETA: Looks like I might not even have to wait that long.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6835389

[gateley]

4. I was just coming back to give you that link! Man that was fast! nt

[tridim]

5. DU Chicken Little freakout day usually begins early Sunday morning

Almost like clockwork. :tinfoilhat:

[gateley]

2. I feel like I have whiplash. I can't wait for this to be resolved. nt

[Alhena]

3. Won't Lieberman and Snowe both fillibuster the public option?

And won't that prevent cloture? Snowe seems certain to fillibuster given her quotes above, and Lieberman seems to relish throwing a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

[Qutzupalotl]

9. Specter says we have 60 votes to block a filibuster.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8711537

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) on Thursday said that Democrats have 60 votes for cloture on a healthcare bill with a national public health insurance option.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has grappled with the inclusion of the public option in the final, merged legislation he is drafting alongside top Senate Democrats and White House leaders.

"We have 60 votes without Sen. Snowe to invoke cloture," Specter told MSNBC this evening. "I hope we have her but we may be able to do it without her."

Specter said the senators on the fence about the public option may vote for cloture to bring the bill to a floor vote, then vote against the legislation.

"Very frequently a senator will vote for cloture but against the bill," he said.

[Lerkfish]

6. when he stops leaning and starts doing, get back to me.

he's a great leaner and not so great doer.

[BrendonAsh]

7. Any Chance

Is it better to push the public option and get nothing or at least pass something?

[butterfly77]

8. I don't believe it..

and I don't trust reid. Sometime tommorrow we will be hearing something else. I am so tired of this ring around the damn rosie game these silly ass senators keep playing. If people can't see what damn games they are playing by now I don't have any hope for some of them.

[joeycola]

12. read the whole article. two important differences from Pelosi bill

[Kingofalldems]

10. We have the Big Mo now

[joeycola]

11. Reid’s version of the public option is different from the more liberal version advocated by Speaker

Another important point: Reid’s version of the public option is different from the more liberal version advocated by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in two key ways: 1) Reid’s version would allow individual states to opt-out of the program, giving public option critics the chance to say that their states retain the right to scrap the idea; and, 2) Under Reid’s plan, the new government insurance program would have to negotiate payment rates with health care providers. Under Pelosi’s, payment rates would be tied to the lower rates paid by Medicare.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. What is exactly wrong with a public option?

public means FOR the people

[Kingofalldems]

14. Oops, I know someone who is not liking this---

not one bit.